Favor of the Odds
by LilyBelleMichele188
Summary: When Peeta was selected as tribute for the 74th Hunger Games his sister was left behind with nothing, but hopes and promises as flimsy and brittle as the odds of his survival.


**(Hello readers! So here is a new short story fanfic I wrote and decided to share. This one is based on the Hunger Games universe. I hope you enjoy. I own nothing but my OC)**

"Stand still Avarie and stop squirming! I don't want the braid to be crooked!" Mother snapped irritably, pinching her daughter roughly before yanking on the tender strands of her long golden hair.

Avarie winced as she always did when her Mother did her hair. "Ow!"

"Now none of that!" Mother sharply struck her in the side of the head before giving her hair another tug. "Just because you're only the baker's daughter does not mean you can't look your best on Reaping Day." She frowned as she tried to tighten the plait.

Avarie frowned at herself in the mirror as her Mother tied off her hair with a piece of twine she had broken off of an old bag of flour, hitting her again while reminding her not to slouch.

Today was Reaping Day. The one day every child from every district aged eleven to seventeen was expected to prepare him and herself to be drawn as tributes for the Hunger Games.

A game literally played to the death in order to serve as a reminder from the Capitol of their power and influence and the helplessness of the other districts.

Avarie knew better than most the toll of this event because the games had already claimed two of her older brothers.

Every year so far Avarie and her remaining brother Peeta managed to luck out from the drawing, but it didn't stop her from being afraid every year when the Reaping would be upon them and it certainly did nothing to ease her anger when her parents, mostly her mother (well only her Mother) talked about it as if it were an honor to still be in the running for the games.

"What good is looking your best when you might only be selected to go to your bloody death?" Avarie muttered, though she wasn't quiet enough and earned a tweak in the ear for her cheek.

"You mind your tongue!" Mother reprimanded, twisting the braid she just tied into a bun on the back of Avarie's head before getting up to grab the rye bread from the oven.

Avarie sighed and rubbed her ear before heading back to the room she shared with her brother. Peeta was already inside, the white shirt and pressed black trousers he was wearing gleaming in the sunlight as he louged in his bed by the window.

"Nice dress. Mum making you wear it?" Peeta asked with a little cheek as he did every year before the reaping whenever Avarie would show up in the dress their Mother made her wear every year on Reaping Day.

Avarie shrugged, knowing the dress was the least of her worries right now. "She yanked my hair too hard again." The discontented fifteen year old plopped down on the edge of Peeta's bed rubbing her head gingerly as if to ease the discomfort.

Peeta sat up on the thin mattress, frowning when he saw the small bruise on the back of his sister's neck where their Mother had pinched her earlier. He didn't say anything about it though, knowing it would do no good. Not right now anyway.

"Say that reminds me. I traded Mr. Biggs an extra three sweet rolls for this." He said hopefully, pulling out something long and light green from his pocket. Avarie turned and raised her eyes at the object.

"What's that?" She asked taking her hand away from her head temporarily.

Peeta shrugged. "It's a ribbon, Silly. Like the one you begged Dad for to put in your hair. I accidentally got a bit of flour on it earlier, but here. You can wear it to the reaping." He offered it to her again.

Avarie made a face. "I don't know." She frowned and crossed her legs. "It's green." She said, almost immediately regretting her indifferent response.

After all if Mother found out about the sweet rolls, Peeta would be in a lot of trouble and it would be partially her fault.

"Suit yourself." Peeta sighed, non-chalantly putting the ribbon back into his pocket. "It would look better than that old twine Mother put in your hair." He added with a laugh.

Avarie was about to answer him when their Father appeared knocking at the door.

"Let's go Children! Don't want to be late!" He spoke with false cheerfulness causing the siblings to groan as he left back to the kitchen.

Peeta and Avarie exchanged sarcastic glances with each other.

"Now why would we want to be late? After all, one of us could get chosen this year." Peeta joked as his sister hopped off the bed after him. Avarie didn't laugh.

"Peeta don't joke about that." She chided clenching a hand into a fist as a couple of jabberjays scrawked out the window. Peeta responded by throwing his arm playfully around her neck.

"Why not? Would you rather I say Happy Hunger Games instead?" He asked squeezing gently in the way he sometimes did to tease his sister.

The corner of Avarie's lip curled up in a hint of a grin. "Nah. Still..." She unwound her brother's arm from her neck. "May the odds-."

"-Be ever in your favor." Peeta finished, matching her grin though his smile did not reach his eyes. "And yours." Avarie chimed in.

...

"Let's start with the girls!" Effie spoke much too brightly in Avarie's opinion as she turned to put her hand into the glass globe where a cluster of little slips of paper floated like a cloud.

Avarie held her breath, digging her nails six inches deep into her own palms as a slip of paper caught between Effie's long gloved fingers.

Most of the other girls around her had calm stoic expressions on their faces and Peeta over with the boys had the same. Avarie quietly wondered if she'd ever be as calm or at least be able to fake it as well as everyone else seemed to be able to.

"Primrose Everdeen!" Effie annouced. A brief sense of relief hit Avarie right before a cold chill ran down her spine as the name that was called echoed throughout the courtyard.

She recognized the name. She and Peeta had bought some cheese from Primrose's goat just last week so that their Father could make cheese bread with it. Plus Peeta had had feelings for Primrose's older sister since their first day of school and had once even burned two loaves of bread on purpose, earning one of Mother's beatings so that he could give it to her when she was starving.

Stiffly, Avarie turned her head just in time to see a young girl probably eleven years old, her bright yellow hair braided into two plaits slowly make her way through the crowd of eleven and twelve year olds towards the front of the area where Effie stood.

She looked so scared and Avarie didn't blame her. The look in Prim's eyes as she moved like a zombie towards the stage was enough to make her forget to feel relieved and safe as she usually did every year past when it was another girl's name who was called instead of hers.

 _Oh no...not Prim. This was her first year. Her name was only in there once! How could she have gotten picked?_ Avarie gritted her teeth together choking back the few tears that had welled up in her eyes as she watched the younger girl walk unsteadily across the ranks moving her arms only to tuck the loose end of her shirt tail back into her skirt.

Unable to keep watching, Avarie deliberately turned away from Prim and searched for Peeta in the sea of young boys who were assembled next to the girls.

"Prim!" A shrill high pitched female voice suddenly broke through the uncomfortable quiet and Avarie whirled back around nearly jumping out of her skin when a girl obviously older than Primrose hurried across the courtyard towards her screaming her name at the top of her lungs.

Avarie quickly recognized her as Katniss, Prim's older sister who was the same age as Peeta. As Avarie watched her run briskly across the courtyard, two peacekeepers came and grabbed Katniss by both arms preventing her from moving closer to the frightened younger girl.

"No! No! Stop! I volunteer!" Katniss struggled in the peacekeepers' grasp, successfully pulling her right arm free from one of them.

Avarie raised an eyebrow surprised at her show of strength. "I volunteer as tribute!"

The whole courtyard went still for a moment then Effie broke the quiet with a noise that sounded like something between an awkward laugh and a cough.

"Ah..It would seem we have a volunteer. Wonderful! Come on up dear!" She motioned to Katniss who was not paying any attention to her.

Avarie strained to hear what she was saying to Prim, but she was speaking too quietly. All she could hear were Prim's frantic and desperate "No!"s until finally a third figure emerged from the crowd towards the two sisters, this one a tall lean muscled boy with short coarse brown hair.

 _Gale..._ Avarie realized recognizing the boy who once defended her from a boy who kept grabbing her hair when she was going home from school one day.

Without a word or hesitation, Gale picked up Primrose and carried her back to where the parents stood behind the prospective tributes. Avarie tried not to listen to her screams, but it was impossible not to.

She hardly heard when Effie had Katniss introduce herself and called for a round of applause to congratulate her on her reaping.

No one clapped of course and Avarie looked down as if to study the dust on her best shoes as Effie announced it was time to choose the boy tribute.

"Peeta Mellark!" The name rung out through the speakers, even louder then it had when Prim's name had been called earlier. Or at least it felt that way to Avarie.

 _No! Not Peeta! Not Peeta!_ Avarie's heart screamed through her chest as her gaze snapped quickly upward again just in time to see her brother make his way slowly, but not as slowly as Prim did towards the stage to where Katniss stood on Effie's right.

Avarie tried to catch his gaze when he passed near her spot, but he didn't even flinch in her direction.

Somehow that stung a bit more than hearing Effie call his name so cheerfully from the stand.

Avarie sniffed, feeling a lump the size of one of her Father's sweet rolls lodge itself in her throat as Effie cheerfully introduced Peeta and Katniss as the two tributes for District 12 and called for another round of applause.

This time her prompt was met by the crowd raising their right hands in the three finger salute. Avarie joined them staring at her brother's blank expression with a teary one of her own.

 _May the odds be ever in your favor._

...

"You have one minute." The peacekeeper roughly nudged Avarie and her Father to the door where Peeta waited to say his goodbyes before taking the train to the Capitol.

Mother had already returned to the bakery.

Avarie winced at how sharp the peacekeeper's knuckles were, but she quickly forgot about it when the door to Peeta's holding room was opened, revealing her brother still in the same clothes he wore to reaping.

Her Father entered blinking as if to hold back tears as Avarie walked beside him on legs that did not feel like her own at the moment. "So...it has come to this after all." Father said quietly, a slight tremor in his voice.

Peeta swallowed and looked down at his feet.

"I suppose so." He answered calmly enough, but Avarie saw his chin wobble.

Losing all self control then, Avarie ran to her brother barely giving him enough time to open his arms for her.

"Oh Avi, don't cry...It's not so bad as all that." Peeta spoke unusually cheerfully causing tears to brim at her eyes again.

This time though they were tears of anger and this time they brimmed over.

"Yes it is! How can you say that it's not? Don't you dare try to make this a joke Peeta, because it isn't funny and it isn't even fair!" She snapped blinking when she felt the moisture seeping down her cheeks.

 _First Lorence, then Jakob...Why?...Why did they have to take Peeta too?_

At her complete meltdown, Peeta lost whatever false cheer he had mustered up for this moment. "I know...I'm sorry Avi." He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and stared at her as if at a loss.

When Avarie didn't stop crying, he reached out and pulled her into an embrace. Something he hadn't done since they were kids.

"It's just I don't want my last time seeing you to be sad. It'll be a little easier then for me...you know if I know you'll be okay." He held her tightly against him while at the same time giving his Father a sad helpless look over the top of her head.

Avarie mopped her eyes with her arm. "I'll never be okay. Not until you come home again...alive." She pulled away slightly so she could look her brother in the eyes.

"Avarie..." Father's tone, told both Avarie and Peeta that he meant it to be reprimanding, but the overwhelming pain in his voice rendered his intentions null.

Peeta gave her a look that was equally as sad and hopeless as hers. "Avarie, I'm a Baker's son. What chance do I have against people who trained their whole lives to win this thing? I can't shoot like Katniss can. I can't brandish _any_ weapons! I've never even killed a squirrel!" He snapped raising his voice a little.

Avarie narrowed her eyes at him. "That doesn't matter. You're still strong. Stronger than anyone I know. That means you have a chance!" She insisted softening her voice instantly as she spoke her last words.

"Promise me you'll try to win, Peeta!" She pleaded just as the door behind her opened again. "Jakob and Lorence are already gone...I can't lose you too." Peeta sighed, feeling his chest constrict at the memory of their two late older brothers both of whom died as a tributes in the games years before.

Deep down he felt he had about as much chance as they did of surviving the games, but he did not say this aloud to his sister.

"You still have Dad. He'll take care of you." Peeta looked up at his Father as if silently demanding his confirmation of his promise. Now that he would no longer be here to try to protect Avarie from their Mother, it was up to him take over the role completely.

The baker silently nodded, tears still in his eyes as he watched his two remaining children embrace each other for what was inevitably the last time.

"Let's go. Time's up." The Peacekeeper appeared back into the room, grabbing Avarie and pulling her roughly away from Peeta's embrace with one hand while reaching for their Father with the other.

Avarie panicked when she felt herself being pulled her away.

"Wait!" The guard stopped pulling Avarie suddenly, probably as shocked as she was when Peeta called out to the peacekeeper.

Hastily searching through his pocket, Peeta quickly seized Avarie's free hand and pushed something into her palm. "Keep this for me. I don't want to lose it and...I know you won't for sure." He muttered shakily in a tone so low Avarie almost didn't hear him.

"Hey I said time's up!" The guard snapped yanking the younger girl away with him again before she could look to see what Peeta had given her.

Avarie gasped and stumbled slightly at the force of his pull almost losing her grip on whatever was that was in her hand. "Peeta!" She tried to speak, but the peacekeeper yanked her back and slammed the door cutting her off from her brother forever.

Peeta clenched his fists at his side, barely containing the urge to run over and knock the peacekeeper into next week for handling his sister so roughly.

However he knew it wouldn't help either of their situations any. So instead he sank back into narrow window seat in his tiny cramped holding chamber and gave way to his own tears as his sister's cries faded agonizingly slowly from hearing.

...

The main doors of the building slammed loudly as Avarie and her Father were shoved out into the stale muggy air of the outside world.

Grimacing at the sore spot on her arm, Avarie dragged herself to her feet, feeling a sudden breeze that was unnaturally chilly for summer as her Father turned towards the direction of the bakery.

"Avarie?" He offered his hand to her, his voice barely above a whisper. Avarie longed to take it and allow her Father to lead her home away from the House of Justice and all the injustice it represented in her mind.

However, she didn't feel quite ready to face the bakery and all that made up her home just yet where reminders of Peeta would surely only serve to make her feel worse than she already did. If that was even possible.

Besides her Mother would only hit her and tell her to stop crying and make herself useful. In a minute she came to a decision.

"You go ahead, Father. I want to take a walk before I go home." She said in as steady a voice as she could manage.

Her Father gave her an understanding look and silently patted her hair before turning in the general direction of the bakery.

Avarie clenched her jaw willing her feet to move as her Father soon disappeared into the regular crowds. Slowly as if being led on an invisible string, she descended the stairs to the sidewalk and started to turn towards the main market square when her legs suddenly gave way and she slid to her hands and knees onto the ground.

Avarie gritted her teeth, thoughts of anguish pounding through her head as the sharp stones and gravel on the ground cut into her hands and knees. Then a pair of warm, rough, much larger hands grabbed her by the wrists in a gentle hold.

Slowly the hands pulled her up from the ground until she met the concerned dark eyed gaze of a familiar older boy.

For a moment neither of them spoke. Avarie stared at Gale and he at her both of them wearing the same burden of grief in their eyes.

Several times Gale opened and closed his mouth slightly as if about to ask Avarie if she was okay and then thinking better of it since she wasn't okay. Neither of them were.

"That ribbon..." Gale finally spoke looking down at the dirty strip of fabric in her right hand. "Did he give that to you?" He asked nodded at the door to the justice house.

Avarie looked down at her hand and realized she was holding the same ugly green ribbon Peeta had tried to give to her earlier before the Reaping Ceremony.

Obviously it was what he had put it into her hand just a minute ago as a parting gift when the Peacekeeper came to take her away.

Realizing this, she silently pulled her hands from Gale's grip and raised the ribbon up to take a better look at it.

She still didn't like the color of the satin very much and there were now dirt stains on it in addition to the flour prints, but now in light of all that happened Avarie felt a strange new attraction to it.

"Yeah. He gave it to me just before..." She stopped and trailed off, another lump threatening to choke her as she gently tried to clean the ribbon. "...before they threw me and Father out of the room."

Gale laid a gentle hand on her shoulder his eyes mirroring her pain. "I'm so sorry Avarie." He spoke solemnly and so sincerely Avarie started to cry again.

"Me too." She whimpered blinking through the tears. "I mean for you...Even if by some chance District 12 does win this year, one of us will still lose someone." Gale nodded his head.

"You're right." His face hardened into mask, making Avarie feel worse.

She felt suddenly horribly selfish now trying to make Peeta promise to win the Games earlier when his winning would mean Katniss would have to be killed.

As much as she hated to think about losing her brother, it made her even sicker to imagine Peeta killing someone, especially Katniss.

Primrose and her Mother would never survive without Katniss to protect and provide for them whereas Avarie still had her parents, even if her Mother didn't really care about her.

Avarie felt her stomach churn with guilt.

How would Gale react to her if he knew what she'd said? What she wished with no thought to the feelings of others.

"I told him he had to win though." Avarie turned away, pulling away from Gale's touch since she didn't want to see his reaction to her admission. "I made him promise me he'd win whatever the cost." She braced herself to get scolded for being selfish.

For wanting Peeta to win when the other tributes were in the same exact boat as he was. It was exactly what she'd deserve, wasn't it?

For a moment only silence answered her.

"Huh...Funny...I told Katniss just about the same thing." Gale chuckled though the sound came out sounding hoarse and choked sounding.

Avarie dared to look at him. "Really?" A strange expression came over her face.

"Yeah." Gale stood and brushed the dust from his pants. "Dumb huh? There can be only one winner and the tributes from one and two have been training for this for years." He shook his head and started to leave.

Avarie stood to her feet and followed him. "But Katniss can shoot." She said wondering at the same time why she had suddenly decided to follow Gale.

"And Peeta's got good arms." Gale added turning to meet her gaze again. "But neither of them are murderers. Not even Katniss." Avarie looked down at the ribbon she still held tightly in her hand.

Raising it to her lips, she kissed it lightly then wound it through her fingers.

"Well then we'll just have to hope that the odds will be in their favor." She said softly as the ribbon rustled slightly in a breeze.

Gale raised his eyebrows at her. "You really think they have a chance?" He asked not slowing his pace.

Avarie shrugged her shoulders. "Believing they have even the slightest chance is better than accepting they'll die." She responded, wondering if Gale would laugh at or even scold her for thinking something so foolish.

"Hmm..." Gale chuckled painfully though his smile still didn't reach his eyes. "That's an interesting way of thinking about it. Although it's probably pointless." He muttered under his breath.

Avarie shook her head then raised her hand in the air in the three finger salute again, this time with Peeta's green ribbon waving like a flag in her grip.

 _I don't care if it is pointless. This is for Peeta...and Katniss. May the odds be ever in their favor._ She hoped silently, watching the ribbon move gently in the breeze.


End file.
